HIDE YOURSELF AWAY

This plodding seventh thriller in Clark's popular KEY News series is distinguished chiefly by the author's insider perspective on major network TV. Grace Callahan, 32-year-old divorced single mom, is the oldest (and by far the neediest) of four TV interns competing for a permanent spot on the crew of KEY to America , a major network news show, when the team departs to do a weeklong remote broadcast from historic Newport, R.I. Forced to leave her 11-year-old daughter, Lucy, in the care of her philandering ex-husband and his Barbie doll wife (who are suing for full custody), Grace develops a crush on her producer, B.J. D'Elia, and feels drably inferior to fellow intern Joss Vickers, super-chic daughter of a wealthy Newport family. The story is kicked into motion by the discovery of the skeleton of a socialite who disappeared 14 years before in an old Underground Railroad tunnel ("a human skull and bones, swaddled in yards of gold lamé"), and the number of suspects and clues (smelly red herrings) rapidly proliferate to include a sleazy local scrimshander, a tattoo artist and a clambake master—all this before Grace's fellow interns begin to fall victim to the paranoid murderer. Even Clark's most faithful fans will be fatigued by the repetitive soap opera plot, which wears on and on until virtually everyone is suspect. Agent, Laura Dail. (July)